Factors that cause miscommunication between Japanese managers and Thai employees

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the demographic characteristics, the language usage in the workplace, and the frequency of miscommunication between Japanese managers and Thai employees working in Japanese companies in Thailand. Their levels of general communication skills, general knowledge, social system awareness, cultural awareness, and general attitude were also identified. In addition, the influence of communicative factors on miscommunication was studied. This research was conducted using quantitative analysis based on questionnaires. The data was collected from 140 Japanese male managers who give instructions directly to Thai subordinates and 140 Thai employees who receive instructions directly from Japanese managers. This study was limited to oral communication and focused on giving and receiving instructions in the workplace. The data was analysed using SPSS. One-way ANOVA statistics were used to determine the independent variables' influence on the dependent variables. The findings of this research were as follows: The Japanese managers and the Thai employees preferred using two languages rather than relying on any one language. English was most often used as the main language. Communication between the two groups mostly succeeded. Miscommunication occurred in 10 to 30% of all conversations in the workplace. The Japanese managers had moderate general communication skills and general attitude, and relatively good general knowledge, social system awareness and cultural awareness. While the Thai employees had moderate general communication skills and cultural awareness, and relatively positive general attitude, general knowledge and social system awareness. The factors confirmed to have an influence on the frequency of miscommunication between Japanese managers and Thai employees were general communication skills, general attitude (for both groups), age, number of language(s) used and general knowledge (for Thai group). While the factors that were not confirmed to have such an influence were e;